Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Blister Butt Boys (redux)

This is a repost from April 6th, 2010. Still a good read!

A few days ago, one of our wonderful readers sent us the link to this wonderful article by Mont Hubbard and published over at Bike Davis
blog. All of us here at the blog love stories of bicycle adventure, so
this is right up our alley, but for me it very special. I grew up in
the exact place these kids are from (so did Gary Fisher
when he was little). Reading this reminded me of being a kid in the
Sunset District of SF in the 1970's. At that time, I got my speed fix
coming down those hills on my roller skates (!!!!!!), but even as young
as 5, I remember being able to ride my bike to any point in the
Neighborhood (15 square miles!) with my gang of neighborhood kids.

Enjoy the freedom of youth reading this article, then get out there and ride!

By Mont Hubbard
Published in the Davis Enterprise, Feb. 26, 2010
San
Francisco, early 1930s. In a time of much greater freedom and
responsibility, a group of young teenagers called themselves the Blister
Butt Bicycle Boys. My father-in-law Mal Taylor, 13, and his older
brother Wally were founding members.
The bicycle was both
emblematic of their independence and the key to it. They lived on their
bicycles, the anvils on which the steel of their characters was forged.
The
purpose of this column is to share some of the joy and excitement that
youth in days gone by were afforded through their bikes. Modern
equivalents must be happening in Davis today, and likely more can, but I
just hope all of them are a bit safer.

Mal and Wally
Taylor grew up in the Sunset district of San Francisco. Wally was born
in 1920, and Mal the following year. Then as now, cycling in the city of
San Francisco was considerably more challenging than in Davis. Hills,
big hills, steep hills! How was a kid to get a heavy one-speed bike to
adequately serve for transportation in such a situation?
Easy!
With ingenuity, initiative and scavenged construction rebar, they
carefully handcrafted a hook (see photo) and waited for an unsuspecting
passing truck. (Kids, don’t try this at home!) The good news was that 75
years ago the trucks climbed very slowly up SF’s famously steep hills.
The bad news was that they often accelerated going back down!

Mal
Taylor, top, and his brother Wally are pictured in the mid-1920s in San
Francisco, hinting at the fun they would have as Blister Butt Bicycle
Boys.

The self-fashioned hook was critical to
quickly and effectively latching onto whatever part of the rear of the
truck could be used for the tow, and then the hook ensured the essential
quick release before the truck’s descent. Even with the “safety”
features provided by the hook, Mal recounted one incident in which a
rope dangling from the truck to which he had hitched became entangled in
his bike’s front wheel, winding tighter and tighter. Fortunately,
before the downhill slope it somehow unwound, freeing him before
catastrophe could occur. The truck driver remained oblivious to the
drama unfolding behind him in his blind spot.

Mal
Taylor and his brother Wally used this hook fashioned from rebar to
snag a truck that would tow their bike up the hills of San Francisco.

Not
only did the bicycle provide freedom and transportation across the
entire city, it enabled their escape into wonderful adventures beyond.
At ages 13 and 14 they planned and executed the first of many long and
complex bike treks. From their homes in the Sunset district they rode to
the ferry, across the Golden Gate (during construction of the bridge),
onto Highway 101 and thence to Camp Taylor (later to become Samuel P.
Taylor State Park) for a five-day outing.
They had convinced their
parents that the 6 cents a day it cost to support each of them at home
should instead be devoted to financial support of their trip. That,
together with their wages from odd jobs such as mowing lawns, helped to
bankroll these expeditions.
The next summer the club decided on a
150-mile, five-day expedition to the Russian River. Having found
homemade saddlebags too clumsy, they paid 63 cents (a substantial sum
during the height of the Depression) to mail their packs to a nearby
general store and made the trip to their camp in one day. This was one
of many such trips: south to Big Basin, and by ferry to the East Bay
hills and points north of the Golden Gate.
Little did they know
that the independence, ingenuity and can-do spirit their bikes fostered
would help them, a short decade later, to develop into the saviors of
freedom of the Western world, as members of America’s Greatest
Generation.
Although our 13-year-olds grow up in a completely
different world today, they could still benefit from some of the
unparalleled advantages that bicycles afforded the Blister Butt Bicycle
Boys: physical and mental conditioning, initiative, self reliance, a bit
more independence, and an unmatched sense of freedom and potential.
These
are qualities that are not developed or enhanced by being driven to and
fro in automobiles by parents. Bikes also provide a great introduction
to mechanical devices — a vanishing area of knowledge for our youths in
the age of video screens and electronic devices.
After hearing
these stories, my wife Lyn, Mal’s daughter, feels extraordinarily lucky
to have been born at all. But she observes that, even with modern
improvements such as gears, helmets, lights and our excellent bike
infrastructure, it’s reassuring not to have to use the truck hitching
hooks in Davis.— Mal Taylor (1921-2010) lived in Sunnyvale and
enjoyed sharing the tales of his youth and biking with friends and
family. Mont Hubbard is a professor of mechanical and aerospace
engineering at UC Davis and a member of Davis Bicycles! He does research
on bicycle dynamics and control and lives with Lyn in South Davis where
they have raised four children and are trying to increase their bicycle
travel mode share. To offer a Davis Bicycles! column, write to Joe
Krovoza at column@davisbicycles.org

1 comment:

Great story! I used to go off on long trips like that in high school - I was yanked out of gym class the last two years of high school, so I would just leave on my bike on the weekends. I'd get too far off to get back by dark and call my mom with "Well, I don't know exactly but there are Amish buggies on the road here, I'll just hitch a ride back with someone who has a van or truck!" That always got them motivated to drive the 50-100 miles out to pick me up!

I just don't see kids doing that sort of thing now - the Bay Area doesn't really seem conducive to that sort of thing with all the traffic, and it seems parents are much more restrictive about what kids can do off on their own.